A new 2011 challenge for me

[caleb72]

I've decided to set myself a little challenge for this year. I want to read at least one "classic" per month of the year.

It's very easy for me to read science fiction and fantasy of all different sub-genres and I also really like horror and quite a bit of general fiction.

However, I'd also like to read some classics and attempting to satisfy a 1-per-month criterium will help me find room for them in my big TBR list.

In terms of definitions of classics I'm sticking with the "I know it when I read it" definition. I've only read two this year so far and I'm reading one now, so although I'm behind the aim is still very achievable.

Does anyone else set themselves little reading targets like this?

[jbcohen]

The classics are mostly free from amazon. I have read a few from them.

[CRussel]

I don't set a specific goal, but I have downloaded several that I either hadn't ever read in my youth, or couldn't remember well. This lead me to read Jack London's The Call of the Wild and Kipling's Captains Courageous, both of which I hadn't read somehow. (And, I might add, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.) Then I added a couple of Steinbecks I should have read but never did, and some Jane Austin. Oh, and Alexandre Dumas. And then some Elizabeth Gaskell, since I've enjoyed the adaptations of them so much.

I suppose I ought to get more formal about it, but really, I read for pleasure. So if they're on my Kindle, they'll get read sooner or later.

[ATDrake]

I have a nifty set of the really nice B&N Classics annotated editions which I picked up during various freebie promotions (you can get 3 DRM-free just for signing up an account with them).

Every so often I toy with systematically reading the lot, but then I just pick one which looks interesting and sporadically read it on and off between my other books. So far I've started about a dozen and finished 1 and nearly half or more of five of those (it takes a while to get through the complete Sherlock Holmes stories).

I have to say that the annotations and commentary are really useful, and help with understanding the context and vocabulary of some of the older/more obscure stuff. Who knew that were that many different kinds of horse-drawn carriages available for public transportation back in the Victorian era?

[JSWolf]

Harry Potter & HHGTTG are both classics. So is Discworld.

Now you have more then enough to read.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Harry Potter & HHGTTG are both classics. So is Discworld.

Now you have more then enough to read.

Shirley you jest?

[SensualPoet]

Given the interest in sci-fi, if it were me, I'd make a point of reading HG Wells, Jules Verne and some of the very early voices from the 30s and 40s (L Ron Hubbard, the Tom Swift novels, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and all those writers who got their start in the pulps). Then again, if you just mean "classics", there is no shortage of Plato or Mark Twain, etc.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I suppose I ought to get more formal about it, but really, I read for pleasure. So if they're on my Kindle, they'll get read sooner or later.

I don't know if you ought to. I just decided to so that I made sure they were able to get in there. My TBR list is so long and full of stuff I want to read. I just wanted to make sure that classics got some priority in there.

This is just a way that encourages me to give them a slot.

So far this year I've read:

- A Room with a View
- 1984

Currently reading:

- The Master and Margarita

I'm sure I can find 9 more that I want to read quite easily such as

- A Tale of Two Cities
- Grapes of Wrath
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Turn of the Screw
- Fahrenheit 451 (Classic? Haven't decided)
- Some Shakespeare - haven't decided which
- Slaughterhouse 5 (Classic? Haven't decided)
- Heart of Darkness
- The Great Gatsby
- To the Lighthouse (I feel I need to read Woolf at least once)
- Old Man and the Sea

And then there's some re-reads that I'm interested in:

- The Outsider
- Death in Venice
- Lord of the Flies
- Crime and Punishment

I read these four in high school and university and I loved all of them. The Outsider actually became my favourite novel for a while and I had the opportunity to study it in French as well as English. It was even better in French.

OK - now that I've proved that I actually know how to write a list, I should probably actually try and read some of them.

Regards
Caleb